Nearly Every Sci-Fi Book I’ve Read
(If you’ve read the books as I go thru the slides, raise your hand to find other people to discuss with)
Three Body Problem [Series]
Quantum physics, Cultural Revolution drama, and a mysterious VR game…
Author has this funny character trope – isolated university-age dude pines for a woman and love isn’t reciprocated.�This has happened at least 3 times
See Also: Ball Lightning
Film adaptations: Netflix, Chinese TV show that’s apparently very faithful, a Minecraft remake (???)
Children of Time
If you read 1 thing, this is the one I recommend the most!
Earth is dead and the only planet of refuge appears to be inhabited by superintelligent spiders. What’s that? We put them there?
Part of a trilogy, but it’s essentially a standalone. I really only recommend the first sequel if you want more. The other one goes off the rails
The Expanse [Series]
“Hard” sci-fi. No phaser beams or teleportation here! Exception: advanced rocket drives mean Earth → Mars in a week instead of months
Three factions: Earth, Mars, and the Belt. Politics, war, mystery, intrigue
Also a series on Amazon Prime if you prefer watching things!
The Martian
Speaking of hard sci-fi, this is even harder
More sci than fi
Man gets stuck on Mars and needs to survive through grit and pluckiness
This is also a movie!
Project Hail Mary
Guy wakes up on spaceship and can’t remember how he got there.
Fun novel that’s less hard sci-fi than Martian although you’ll still get lots of science!
(Update 2025: it’s becoming a movie!)
Dune [Series]
1’s a classic, I do think you enjoy the movies more after reading this
2’s good if you want more
I liked 3 personally but it did start to drag
You should probably stop before 4 unless you’re committed
But if for some reason you want more I believe there’s 23 books total (his son cashed in on his dad’s IP)
Ender’s Game [Series]
Ender’s Game is a classic. Leadership, strategy, empathy, high-pressure
Ender’s trilogy I found really fascinating, with really good characters, world-building, plot
The other quintet was very fun. Author inspired by real-world generals and wars
Story of Your Life and Others
Exhalation: Stories
Anthologies of very, very, very well-executed short stories
These pack a philosophical punch
One of these stories inspired the movie “Arrival”
If you want to get a taste you can read the short story Exhalation here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/
Snow Crash
Dripping with edge and that’s what makes it fun. The main character is a hacker with a katana, and his name is “Hiro Protagonist” are you serious?
Fun novel!
Foundation [Series]
Classic sci-fi
“What if math can predict the future in aggregate”
Has some connections with other Asimov books
This is a series on Apple TV!
The Andromeda Strain
What if COVID was an alien?
That wouldn’t be fun, unless you were one of the scientists working on finding the cure!
[It would still probably not be fun]
[But the book is good]
The Murderbot Diaries
Mentally ill cyborg has guns and is not afraid to use them
Light reads. Short novels and hand-wavy worldbuilding; the main character and interactions make it worthwhile
Interesting stream-of-consciousness writing style that I loved (but YMMV)
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
So, do you have an example of this “S-risk from advanced AI”?
…oh dear…
Very short story but a classic
Hyperion
6 mini-stories and an overarching narrative. For my money 2 of those stories were very, very good
Worldbuilding is fantastical and very interesting. Characters seems a little flat though
B-tier I’d say
On the reading list…
A Fire Upon the Deep (thanks Nathan!)
The Fall of Hyperion (thanks Aakash!)
…
Your sci-fi book rec here??
See all the books I’ve read and some really short commentary: https://jeremykintana.substack.com/p/reading-list